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Gunman Feared "Microwave Vibrations"; Shooting Victim About To Retire; Prosthetic Limbs Go Extreme; Sobbing Woman: "Please Hurry"; "This Is Genocide In America"; Baseball Mom's Mortgage Surprise; Tour Championship This Weekend; Kevin Ware Dunks Months After Injury
Aired September 18, 2013 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: As investigators try to piece together a motive for Monday's shootings, the Navy Yard in Washington remains a crime scene, off limits to all but essential personnel today. We're also learning more about the shooter's mental state. About a month ago, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis told police he heard, quote, "voices in his head." People talking through walls, talking through floors, using microwaves, he reported, to keep him awake.
But whenever a mass killer strikes, we really want to focus on the victims, to remember them, to tell their stories. And today, two people are among the many who are grappling with the loss of a mother and a wife. Cathy Gaardi, was one of the 12 victims shot and killed at the Washington Navy Yard Monday. She was 62 years old. She was just months from retiring. Her husband and her daughter sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper for this exclusive, heartbreaking interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGLASS GAARDE, WIFE KILLED IN NAVY YARD SHOOTING SPREE: I guess what I want them to know most about her is what a caring person she was, particularly how she cared about her family. Some mentioned she took care of her mother who was living with us for 10 years. She moved in when she was about 85 and lived here until she was 94. That's a lot to take on when you are a full-time mom and a full-time worker and she did a great job of that in addition to raising our two kids, Jessica.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "360": She loved nature. She loved animals?
DOUGLASS GAARDE: She loved animals. We've got them tied up. We got two dogs, two cats and that's actually down from what we used to have.
COOPER: Wow. What do you want people to know, Jessica?
JESSICA GAARDE, MOTHER KILLED IN NAVY YARD SHOOTING SPREE: I guess in addition to what my dad is saying, I just with everything going on I want them to know she lives. She is not a number.
COOPER: You want them to know the person she was and the life she lived. JESSICA GAARDE: Yes. Because she was so caring and she would do anything for anyone she loved. And she really did have a deep heart for animals, no matter what that caused, if one of her animals was sick. She would do everything that need to be done to make sure they were OK.
COOPER: You were planning retirement.
DOUGLASS GAARDE: I am basically retired. She was -- we were trying to pick the best time for her to retire. She was pretty much planning on probably this January, towards end of the year, unless sometimes they offer buyouts when the budget gets in that kind of situation. So she might have left a little bit earlier.
COOPER: She could have already retired?
DOUGLASS GAARDE: Yes, she was 62 with what 33 years of government service, so that's, would have been very comfortable with them, but --
COOPER: Does it seem real at this point?
JESSICA GAARDE: For me, it's very surreal, but it's also, it's like a constant tsunami because I have these pains of numbness like the water is receding and I feel nothing and then something, whether it be a bill on the counter, or heck I was in the bathroom and she recently bought me new towels and I just see the towels and just it all hits.
COOPER: It comes in waves?
JESSICA GAARDE: Yes. And it's --
COOPER: You went down there yesterday?
DOUGLASS GAARDE: Yes, I was sitting at my computer. Actually, she had sent an e-mail to me about 10 to 8:00. That was the last I heard from her. Of course, as the day wore on, you know, at first you don't think, there's 3,000 people in there. What are the chances of her being one of the ten that was injured?
But as it gets later in the day, you know if she was able to get to the phone, she would have called home and then I kind of kept it from Jessica. I didn't bother telling her while she was at work. But when it was time to come home, she found out. When she called me, that's when I told her, OK. You come Ohio take care of the dogs. I'll go down to the parking lot down there and meet Cathy there, hopefully.
And I got down there and it was probably about that time, I guess, it was about 7:00 or so, they were down to the last, there was about maybe four or five series of buses still coming through. But just the later it got the more desperate I got. It wasn't until later that I had got an call if one of my wife's co-workers who said she had talked to some of her co-workers and they had seen Cathy was one of the ones that was hit, and at that point --
COOPER: One of her co-workers actually saw her? DOUGLASS GAARDE: Yes, saw that she was one of the ones that had been hit and at that point I kind of said, look, this is crap. You know, you guys, you got to tell me what's going on. It was at that point that they went back to the further end behind the gates of the stadium there and came back out and they said, yes, she was one of the ones that was hit.
COOPER: How do you, I mean, how do you deal with something like this? How do you get through?
DOUGLASS GAARDE: I don't know. I haven't done it yet. I mean -- I've lost my parents. So I know what that's like and I'm not going to say I know what you feel, but I know that your life goes on beyond your parents. I don't know where my life goes now. She was my partner. We had plans to do things and now it's gone. So I want my kids, you know, to have their own lives, and so I don't know.
COOPER: It's incredible you had 43 years together.
DOUGLASS GAARDE: Yes, it is. It's incredible on the one hand and it's a huge loss on the other. Like I said, where I was going before, I don't know where I go after this. I mean, you just go on, I guess.
COOPER: It's hard to imagine life without her?
DOUGLASS GAARDE: I mean, I only had 20 years of life without her and 43 with her. So that's two-thirds of my life. She was always there, always partners.
COOPER: Thank you so much.
DOUGLASS GAARDE: Thank you.
COOPER: I wish you peace and strength in the days ahead.
JESSICA GAARDE: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: An extreme sports athlete has invented this way to get amputees, military men and women, back up to speed. Take a look at this CNN Technovation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN (voice-over): As the pro motocross and snow mobile racer, Mike Schultz is always chasing the action.
MIKE SCHULTZ, PROFESSIONAL RACER: When I was a little guy, I was always out ripping around the farm with three-wheelers and four- wheelers. I loved the speed and that adrenaline rush.
BALDWIN: But it was a race that he didn't finish that left the biggest impact on him. SCHULTZ: We were coming down this really rough mogul section and my machine started swapping side and side and it kicked me off to the side.
BALDWIN: Mike was in the hospital for weeks and his left leg was amputated to save his life.
SCHULTZ: Now what? I mean, I'm a professional athlete. It's kind of the same mentality where it's an injury I'll recover from it and get back at it.
BALDWIN: When he didn't find any solutions, he invented one.
SCHULTZ: When you get into the action sports, you need the full range of motion. I didn't really see what I wanted. I thought, how about I build my own leg?
BALDWIN: Mike created the motoknee and versafoot, built with a mountain bike shock absorber, a spring return, and hydraulic support. His invention got him back to the top. He won gold at the X-games and an Invention of The Year Award from popular science, and now, it's helping others.
SCHULTZ: We work with a lot of military guys. It's a pretty amazing feeling. Something that I have built in my shop is allowing them to go out there and just shred the slopes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: How about that?
Coming up, new details in the death of that unarmed man shot and killed by a police officer in North Carolina. Coming up next, the frantic 911 call a homeowner made minutes after the victim came to her door begging for help.
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BALDWIN: The legal wrangling has begun in a case of a North Carolina police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man, just trying to get help after a car accident, and police have now released the 911 call that brought the officers to the scene. They have disguised the voice of the caller who was clearly frightened when 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell banged on the door after crashing his car in the middle of the night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CALLED: Opened the door and I thought it was my husband. I just woke up I was asleep.
UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: And your little boy, you say he's downstairs?
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: No. He's in his crib. We just have a one story. My God, what if he smashes in my back window? UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: He's not going to smash in your back window. He won't.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Thank God. Where are the cops?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Police say Ferrell charged them. The taser didn't phase him. Officer Randall Carrick opened fire with his gun, hitting him ten times. Carrick is now charged with voluntary manslaughter. His attorney called Carrick's actions justified. But the NAACP is saying the manslaughter charge doesn't go far enough. They want Carrick charged with murder.
Coming up next, we're getting word of an interesting moment in a news conference involving families of Newtown victims, and it happened when a mother who lost her son to violence in Chicago took the stage. Stay right here. Do not miss this.
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BALDWIN: Just two days after a Washington Navy Yard became the scene of the latest shooting massacre. The pain is still fresh for the families of those killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School some nine month ago. Today, grieving family members who have formed the Newtown Action Alliance met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and others who have also lost loved ones in gun violence across the country. One woman still struggling to come to terms with the death of her 18-year-old son killed in Chicago in 2010.
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SHUNDRA ROBINSON, SON KILLED IN CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE: To our Congress, to our Senate, to our president, vice president, even to the wives of our politicians. You are mothers. We would hate for you all to have to stand in our shoes and feel what we feel. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter what class you're in whether you're upper or lower. It doesn't matter your environment, and Newtown is here to prove that.
What happened in Washington should prove that. It doesn't matter if you're in an urban community. Crime is crime and something needs to be done about it. My son, Dino, was 18 years old, standing on his grandmother's porch at 5:00 in the evening. He did not deserve to be shot down like an animal. He had potential to be just like we are today.
But that was taken away from him and everybody wants to talk about the second amendment right. What about our children? They have a right to live. And we stand here today -- we stand here today as mothers and fathers up here. And I remember Cleo said it so profoundly, that it's a constant ache in your heart that we can never get rid of.
No Tylenol, no morphine will ever take this pain away. You guys can leave here and go on with your lives, but we have to go on to empty rooms because our children's lives were taken away by people who should not have had guns anyway. Most of our children's lives were lost by people under 21. This universal background check is a start. We need healing, you guys, and it's a global thing. It's beyond an epidemic. This is genocide in America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: This happening moments ago in Washington. You heard her. This is of the Newtown Action Alliance calling on Congress to pass universal background checks for all gun purchases. And make sure you watch CNN tonight. Here's a preview of our primetime.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: CNN Tonight, at 7:00, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT," controversy over the crown. The new Miss America responds to racist comments over her win. Then at 8:00 on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," remembering the victims who lost their lives in the Navy Yard shooting, and at 9:00 on "PIERS MORGAN LIVE," it's a deadly combination, guns and mental illness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way a gun should ever get in the hands of a mentally ill person.
ANNOUNCER: From the suicide of Pastor Rick Warren's son to the shooting in Washington's Navy Yard, Piers asks the experts, can anything be done? It's all on CNN Tonight, starting with "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" at 7:00, "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 8:00, and "PIERS MORGAN LIVE" at 9:00 tonight on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BALDWIN: In today's "Bleacher Report," a very special day for one mom. Andy Scholes, what happened?
ANDY SCHOLES, "BLEACHER REPORT": Hi, Brooke. Marcus Strowman was picked in the first round by the Blue Jays last year. As you would expect, he received a pretty nice signing bonus from the team and this week, he put the money to good use. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marcus, what did you do? Marcus, no!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: That's his mom breaking down in tears because her son paid off her mortgage. She posted the video on Instagram saying he wouldn't be where he is today without his parents, with the hashtag #family first. Good for him.
Well, $10 million is on the line starting tomorrow for the 30 golfers competing in this year's PGA Tour championship. Five golfers can win the $10 million prize by just winning this weekend's tournament in Atlanta. Those five are Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Hendrick Stenson, Jack Johnson and Matt Kutcher. The other 25 golfers have a chance to win the playoff title with a victory, but would need help from the players at the top of the standings. Tiger will be the last to tee off tomorrow afternoon. He hits the course at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
Trending on bleacher.com today is a story about Kevin Ware's road to recovery. The Louisville junior suffered one of the most gruesome injuries ever seen on a basketball court during the NCAA Tournament. Less than six months later, check it out. He's already back on the court and he's already dunking. After the injury, Ware vowed to play this season and with games less than two months away, it looks like he's on track to reach his goal.
That will do it for your "Bleacher Report." Brooke, back to you.
BALDWIN: Andy, thank you. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Here we go.
